The opening of the month of June will long be remembered with sadness
and dismay by thousands of people in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland
and the two Virginias. In the District of Columbia, too, it was a time
of losses and of terror. The northwestern and more fashionable part of
Washington, D. C., never looked more lovely than it did on Sunday, but
along a good part of the principal business thoroughfare, Pennsylvania
avenue, and in the adjacent streets to the southward, there was a dreary
waste of turbid, muddy water, that washed five and six feet deep the
sides of the houses, filling cellars and basements and causing great
inconvenience and considerable loss of property. Boats plied along the
avenue near the Pennsylvania Railroad station and through the streets of
South Washington. A carp two feet long was caught in the ladies'
waiting-room at the Baltimore and Potomac station, and several others
were caught in the streets by boys. These fish came from the Government
Fish Pond, the waters of the Potomac having covered the pond and allowed
them to escape.
Along the river front the usually calm Potomac was a wide, roaring,
turbulent stream of dirty water, rushing madly onward, and bearing on
its swift-moving surface logs, telegraph poles, portions of houses and
all kinds of rubbish. The stream was nearly twice its normal width, and
flowed six feet and more deep through the streets along the river front,
submerging wharves, small manufacturing establishments, and lapping the
second stories of mills, boat-houses and fertilizing works in
Georgetown. It completely flooded the Potomac Flats, which the
Government had raised at great expense to a height in most part of four
and five feet, and inundated the abodes of poor negro squatters, who had
built their frame shanties along the river's edge. The rising of the
waters has eclipsed the high-water mark of 1877. The loss was enormous.
The river began rising early on Saturday morning, and from that time
continued to rise steadily until five o'clock Sunday afternoon, when the
flood began to abate, having reached a higher mark than ever before
known. The flood grew worse and worse on Saturday, and before noon the
river had become so high and strong that it overflowed the banks just
above the Washington Monument, and backing the water into the sewer
which empties itself at this point, began to flow along the streets on
the lower levels.
By nightfall the water in the streets had increased to such an extent as
to make them impassable by foot passengers, and boats were ferrying
people from the business part of the town to the high grounds in South
Washington. The street cars also continued running and did a thriving
business conveying pleasure-seekers, who sat in the windows and bantered
one another as the deepening waters hid the floor. On Louisiana avenue
the produce and commission houses are located, and the proprietors
bustled eagerly about securing their more perishable property, and
wading knee-deep outside after floating chicken-coops. The grocery
merchants, hotel men and others hastily cleared out their cellars and
worked until the water was waist-deep removing their effects to higher
floors.
Meanwhile the Potomac, at the Point of Rocks, had overflowed into the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and the two became one. It broke open the
canal in a great many places, and lifting the barges up, shot them down
stream at a rapid rate. Trunks of trees and small houses were torn from
their places and swept onward.
The water continued rising throughout the night, and about noon of
Sunday reached its maximum, three feet six inches above high-water mark
of 1877, which was the highest on record. At that time the city
presented a strange spectacle. Pennsylvania avenue, from the Peace
monument, at the foot of the Capitol, to Ninth street, was flooded with
water, and in some places it was up to the thighs of horses. The cellars
of stores along the avenue were flooded, and so were some of the main
floors. In the side streets south of the avenue there was six to eight
feet of water, and yawls, skiffs and canoes were everywhere to be seen.
Communication except by boat was totally interrupted between North and
South Washington. At the Pennsylvania Railroad station the water was up
to the waiting-room.
Through the Smithsonian and Agricultural Department grounds a deep
stream was running, and the Washington Monument was surrounded on all
sides by water.
A dozen lives lost, a hundred poor families homeless, and over
$2,000,000 worth of property destroyed, is the brief but terrible record
of the havoc caused by the floods in Maryland. Every river and mountain
stream in the western half of the State has overflowed its banks,
inundating villages and manufactories and laying waste thousands of
acres of farm lands. The losses by wrecked bridges, washed-out roadbeds
and land-slides along the western division of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, from Baltimore to Johnstown, reach half a million dollars or
more. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, that political bone of contention
and burden to Maryland, which has cost the State many millions, is a
total wreck. The Potomac river, by the side of which the canal runs,
from Williamsport, Md., to Georgetown, D. C., has swept away the locks,
towpaths, bridges, and, in fact, everything connected with the canal.
The probability is that the canal will not be restored, but that the
canal bed will be sold to one of the railroads that have been trying to
secure it for several years. The concern has never paid, and annually
has increased its enormous debt to the State.
The Western Maryland Railroad Company and the connecting lines, the
Baltimore and Harrisburg, and the Cumberland Valley roads, lose heavily.
On the mountain grades of the Blue Ridge there are tremendous washouts,
and in some sections the tracks are torn up and the road-bed destroyed.
Several bridges were washed away. Dispatches from Shippensburg,
Hagerstown and points in the Cumberland Valley state that the damage to
that fertile farming region is incalculable. Miles of farm lands were
submerged by the torrents that rushed down from the mountains. Several
lives were lost and many head of cattle drowned. At the mountain town of
Frederick, Md., the Monocacy river, Carroll creek and other streams
combined in the work of destruction.
Friday night was one of terror to the people of that section. The
Monocacy river rose rapidly from the time the rain ceased until last
night, when the waters began to fall. The back-water of the river
extended to the eastern limit of the city, flooding everything in its
path and riding over the fields with a fierce current that meant
destruction to crops, fences and everything in its path. At the
Pennsylvania Railroad bridge the river rose thirty feet above low-water
mark. It submerged the floor of the bridge and at one time threatened it
with destruction, but the breaking away of 300 feet of embankment on the
north side of the bridge saved the structure. With the 300 feet of
embankment went 300 feet of track. The heavy steel rails were twisted by
the waters as if they had been wrenched in the jaws of a mammoth vise.
The river at this point and for many miles along its course overflowed
its banks to the width of a thousand feet, submerging the corn and wheat
fields on either side and carrying everything before it. Just below the
railroad bridge a large wooden turnpike bridge was snapped in two and
carried down the tide. In this way a half-dozen turnpike bridges at
various points along the river were carried away. The loss to the
counties through the destruction of these bridges will foot up many
thousand dollars.
Mrs. Charles McFadden and Miss Maggie Moore, of Taneytown, were drowned
in their carriage while attempting to cross a swollen stream. The horse
and vehicle were swept down the stream, and when found were lodged
against a tree. Miss Moore was lying half-way out of the carriage, as
though she had died in trying to extricate herself. Mrs. McFadden's body
was found near the carriage. At Knoxville considerable damage was done,
and at Point of Rocks people were compelled to seek the roofs of their
houses and other places of safety. A family living on an island in the
middle of the river, opposite the Point, fired off a gun as a signal of
distress. They were with difficulty rescued. In Frederick county, Md.,
the losses aggregate $300,000.
The heaviest damage in Maryland was in the vicinity of Williamsport,
Washington county. The railroads at Hagerstown and Williamsport were
washed out. The greatest loser is the Cumberland Valley Railroad. Its
new iron bridge across the Potomac river went down, nothing being left
of the structure except the span across the canal. The original cost of
the bridge was $70,000. All along the Potomac the destruction was great.
At and near Williamsport, where the Conococheague empties into the
Potomac, the loss was very heavy.
At Falling Waters, where only a few days before a cyclone caused death
and destruction, two houses went down in the angry water, and the little
town was almost entirely submerged. In Carroll County, Md., the losses
reached several hundred thousand dollars. George Derrick was drowned at
Trevanion Mills, on Pipe creek. Along the Patapsco river in Howard
county great damage was done to mills and private property. Near
Sykesville the water undermined the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad track
and a freight train was turned over an embankment. William Hudson was
standing on the Suspension Bridge, at Orange Grove, when the structure
was swept away, and he was never seen again.
Port Deposit, near the mouth of the Susquehanna river, went under water.
Residents along the river front left their homes and took refuge on the
hills back of the town. The river was filled with thousands of logs from
the broken booms up in the timber regions. From the eastern and southern
sections of the State came reports of entire fruit farms swept away. Two
men were drowned in the storm by the capsizing of a sloop near
Salisbury.
A number of houses on the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers near Harper's
Ferry were destroyed by the raging waters which came thundering down
from the mountains, thirty to forty feet higher than low-water mark.
John Brown's fort was nearly swept away. The old building has withstood
a number of floods. There is only a rickety portion of it standing,
anyhow, and that is now covered with mud and rubbish. While the crowds
on the heights near Harper's Ferry were watching the terrible work of
destruction, a house was seen coming down the Potomac. Upon its roof
were three men wildly shouting to the people on the hills to save them.
Just as the structure struck the railroad bridge, the men tried to catch
hold of the flooring and iron work, but the swift torrent swept them all
under, and they were seen no more. What appeared to be a babe in a
cradle came floating down behind them, and a few moments later the body
of a woman, supposed to be the mother of the child, swept by. Robert
Connell, a farmer living upon a large island in the Potomac, known as
Herter Island, lost all his wheat crop and his cattle. His family was
rescued by Clarence Stedman and E. A. Keyser, an artist from Washington,
at the risk of their lives. The fine railroad bridge across the
Shenandoah, near Harper's Ferry, was destroyed. The Ferry Mill Company
sustained heavy losses.
Along the South Mountains, in Washington and Alleghany counties, Md.,
the destruction was terrible. Whole farms, including the houses and
barns, were swept away and hundreds of live stock killed. Between
Williamsport, Md., and Dam No. 6 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
twenty-six houses were destroyed, and it is reported that several
persons were drowned. The homeless families are camping out on the
hills, being supplied with food and clothing by the citizens of
Williamsport.
Joseph Shifter and family made a narrow escape. They were driven to the
roof of their house by the rising waters, and just a minute before the
structure collapsed the father caught a rowboat passing by, and saved
his wife and little ones.
The town of Point of Rocks, on the Potomac river, twelve miles eastward
of Harper's Ferry, was half-submerged. Nearly $100,000 worth of property
in the town and vicinity was swept away. The Catholic Church there is
500 feet from the river. The extent of the flood here may be imagined
when it is stated that the water was up to the eaves of the church.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal has been utterly lost, and what formerly
was the bed of the canal is now part of the Potomac river. There were
but few houses in Point of Rocks that were not under water. The
Methodist Church had water in its second story. The two hotels of which
the place boasts, the American and the St. Charles, were full of water,
and any stranger in town had to hunt for something to eat.
Every bridge in Frederick county, Md., was washed away. Some of these
bridges were built as long ago as 1834, and were burned by the
Confederate and Union forces at various times in 1864, afterward being
rebuilt. At Martinsburg, W. Va., a number of houses were destroyed.
Little Georgetown, a village on the Upper Potomac, near Williamsport,
Md., was entirely swept away.
Navigation on Chesapeake Bay was seriously interrupted by the masses of
logs, sections of buildings and other ruins afloat. Several side-wheel
steamers were damaged by the logs striking the wheels. Looking southward
for miles from Havre de Grace, the mouth of the Susquehanna, and far out
into the bay the water was thickly covered with the floating wood.
Crowds of men and boys were out on the river securing the choicest logs
of hard wood and bringing them to a safe anchorage. By careful count it
was estimated that 200 logs, large and small, were swept past Havre de
Grace every minute. At that rate there would be 12,000 logs an hour. It
is estimated that over 70,000,000 feet of cut and uncut timber passed
Havre de Grace within two days. Large rafts of dressed white pine boards
floated past the city. The men who saved the logs got from 25 cents to
$1 for each log for salvage from the owners, who sent men down the river
to look after the timber. Enough logs have been saved to give three
years' employment to men, and mills will be erected to saw up the stuff.
Not within the memory of the oldest inhabitants had Petersburg,
Virginia, been visited by a flood as fierce and destructive as that
which surprised it on Saturday and Sunday. The whole population turned
out to see the sight.
The storm that did such havoc in Virginia and West Virginia on Thursday
reached Gettysburg on Saturday morning. The rain began at 7 o'clock
Friday morning and continued until 3 o'clock Saturday. It was one
continuous down-pour during all that time. As a result, the streams were
higher than they had been for twenty-five years. By actual measurement
the rain-fall was 4.15 inches between the above hours. Nearly every
bridge in the county was either badly damaged or swept away, and farmers
who lived near the larger streams mourn for their fences carried away
and grain fields ruined. Both the railroads leading to the town had
large portions of their embankments washed out and many of their bridges
disturbed. On the Baltimore and Harrisburg division of the Western
Maryland Railroad the damage was great. At Valley Junction 1000 feet of
the embankment disappeared, and at Marsh creek, on the new branch of the
road to Hagerstown, four divisions of the bridge were swept away.
But at Pine Grove and Mount Holly perhaps the greatest damage was done.
The large Laudel dam, which supplies the water to run the forge at Pine
Grove furnace, and which covers thirty acres of land, burst. It swept
away part of the furnace and a house. The occupants were saved by men
wading in water up to their waists. Every bridge, with one exception, in
Mount Holly was swept away by the flood occasioned by the breaking of
the dam which furnished water for the paper mills at that place.
The water at Elmira, N. Y., on Saturday night was from a foot to a foot
and a half higher than ever before known. The Erie Railroad bridge was
anchored in its place by two trains of loaded freight cars. The water
rose to the cars, which, with the bridge, acted as a dam, and forced the
water back through the city on the north side of the Chemung river,
where the principal business houses are located. The water covered the
streets to a depth of two or three feet, and the basements of the stores
were quickly flooded, causing thousands of dollars of damage. The only
possible way of entering the Rathbone House, the principal hotel of the
city and on the chief business street, was by boats, which were rowed
directly into the hotel office. On the south side of the river the
waters were held in check for several hours by the ten-foot railroad
embankment, but hundreds of families were driven into the upper stories
of their houses. Late in the evening, two thousand feet of the
embankment was forced away, and the water carried the railroad tracks
and everything else before it. An extensive lumber yard in the path of
the rushing water was swept away. Many horses were drowned, and the
people living on the flats were rescued with great difficulty by the
police and firemen.
A terrible rain-storm visited Andover, N. Y. All the streams were
swollen far above high-water mark, and fields and roads were overflowed.
No less than a dozen bridges in this town were carried away, and newly
planted crops were utterly ruined. The water continued to rise rapidly
until 4 o'clock. At that hour the two dams at the ponds above the
village gave away, and the water rushed wildly down into the village.
Nearly every street in the place was overflowed, and in many cases
occupants of houses were driven to the upper floors for safety. Owen's
large tannery was flooded and ruined. Almost every rod of railroad track
was covered and much of it will have to be rebuilt. The track at some
points was covered fifteen feet with earth.
At Wellsville, N. Y., the heavy rain raised creeks into rivers and
rivers into lakes. Never, in the experience of the oldest inhabitant,
had Wellsville been visited with such a flood. Both ends of the town
were submerged, water in many cases standing clear to the roofs of
houses.
Canisteo, N. Y., was invaded by a flood the equal of which had never
been known or seen in that vicinity before. Thursday afternoon a
drizzling rain began and continued until it became a perfect deluge.
The various creeks and mountain rills tributary to the Canisteo river
became swollen and swept into the village, inundating many of the
streets to the depth of three feet and others from five to seven feet.
The streets were scarcely passable, and all stores on Main and the
adjacent streets were flooded to a depth of from one to two feet and
much of the stock was injured or spoiled. Many houses were carried away
from their foundations, and several narrow escapes from death were made.
One noble deed, worthy of special mention, was performed by a young man,
who waded into the water where the current was swift and caught a baby
in his arms as it was thrown from the window of a house that had just
been swept from its foundation.
The Fire Department Building, one of the most costly blocks in town, was
undermined by the flood and the greater part fell to the ground with a
crash. The town jail was almost destroyed.
The inundation in the coal, iron and lumber country around Sunbury,
Penn., occasioned much destruction and suffering, while no less than
fifty lives were lost. The Susquehanna, Allegheny, Bald Eagle,
Sinnamahoning and Huntingdon Railways suffered greatly, and the losses
incurred reach, in round numbers, $2,000,000. In Clearfield, Clinton,
Lycoming, Elk, Cameron, Northumberland, Centre, Indiana, McKean,
Somerset, Bedford, Huntingdon, Blair and Jefferson counties the
rain-storm was one of unprecedented severity. The mountain streams grew
into great rivers, which swept through the country with irresistible
fury and force, and carried devastation in all directions.
The destruction in the Allegheny Valley at and near Dubois, Red Bank,
New Bethlehem and Driftwood was immense, hardly a saw-mill being left
standing.
Transcriber's Notes
Corrections
The use of larger or small capitals for "P.M." and "A.M." varies and
have been left intact. Several apparent errors were noted, but have been
allowed to stand, and are included in this list. The spelling of
'Pittsburgh' frequently omits the final 'h'. Both variants are retained.
Variants in other place names are retained as well.
An apparent confusion on p. 279: "_Fonda, N. Y., June 5._--The people of
Johnstown, N. Y...." is retained. Fonda and Johnstown N.Y. were and are
neighboring communities.
In lists of contributions, missing or incorrect punctuation has been
rendered consistent.
The following corrections were made where the errors are clearly
inadvertent. Several instances of possibly nonstandard spelling have
been noted with 'sic', which have been retained.
p. viii | 13[7] | Completed page number.
| |
p. 17 | Franks[]town Turnpike | Missing hyphen at page
| | break.
| |
p. 43 | here and there[.] Each | Added stop.
| |
p. 97 | [']To the hills | Added single quote.
| |
p. 101 | as soon as [we] were in it | Added 'we'.
| |
p. 129 | The Pitt[t]sburg lady | Removed extra 't'.
| |
p 135 | so we [we] did not pay much | Removed redundant 'we'.
| |
p. 149 | especially the [woman], fainted. | sic
| |
p. 151 | that were intrusted to us.["] | Closing quote added.
| |
p. 177 | and Mary, nineteen years." | Added missing quote.
| |
p. 182 | SITE OF THE HU[R]LBURT | Elsewhere spelled
| | Hurlburt.
| |
p. 204 | the Hotel Hurlbu[r]t | Elsewhere spelled
| | Hurlburt.
| |
p. 224 | train was on a sid[]ing | Missing hyphen on
| | line break.
| |
p. 225 | to[-]day | Missing hyphen added.
| |
p. 287 | amounted to $687,872[,/.]68 | Comma replaced with
| | decimal.
| |
p. 294 | Thomas Garner & Co[.] | Period added.
| |
p. 297 | Saugerties[,] N. Y., $850; | comma added.
| |
p. 301 | débris / debris | Both the accented and
| | unaccented spellings
| | are retained, here and
| | elsewhere.
| |
p. 306 | nine hundred men [a]t work | Added missing 'a'.
| |
p. 317 | was discovered w[h]ere anybody | Added missing 'h'.
| |
p. 319 | there was ample water t[e/o] cover | Corrected typo.
| |
| amount of water i[n/t] contained | Corrected typo.
| |
p. 320 | ninety million cubic feet[.] | Added missing '.'
| |
p. 321 | Ho[u/a]ng-ho | Changed to agree with
| | other instances.
| |
p. 322 | But the b[r]each grew | Corrected typo.
| |
p. 327 | A large rock was split assunder | sic
| |
p. 328 | and caused great dam[s/a]ge | Corrected typo.
| |
p. 329 | the Danube again o[u/v]erflowed | Corrected typo.
| |
| its turbulent waters i[u/n]to | Corrected typo.
| |
p. 332 | At Whitehall, [N.G./N.Y.] | Corrected typo.
| |
| one hundred and nin[e]ty feet | Corrected typo.
| |
p. 358 | Baltimore and Ohio Rail[a/r]oad | Corrected typo.
| |
p. 377 | turned in[]to them by people | sic
| |
p. 407 | Allegehenies | sic
| |
p. 414 | draughty as a seive | sic
| |
p. 434 | ever beat our time[.]" | Added '.'
| |
p. 458 | [Caniesto/Canisteo] river | Corrected typo.